The purpose of an interview is to clarify applicants’ claims for a
position and to enable applicants to put forward further evidence in
support of their claims.
A structured interview is an interview with a clearly defined
structure, containing set interview questions. The structured interview
has been found to be one of the most accurate tools at assessing
whether an applicant will perform well in a particular role. The
structured interview contains a mix of quantitative, hypothetical and
behavioural questions.
Quantitative questions are looking for a response that is easily
measured, such as “how many staff did you supervise”, “have you used
program X in your current position”, “how long have you done X.”
The answers to these questions will generally be in numerical form, or
yes / no answers.
A hypothetical (sometimes referred to as “situational”) question is one
where the applicant is presented with a hypothetical situation and
asked to come up with a solution. For example, “you arrive at
work one morning and your manager is sick, and their manager is
interstate on a business trip. You have a heavy workload, and
minimal resources to complete your tasks. What do you do?” The
selection panel should be looking for a response that shows them the
process the applicant would use to work through various situations, and
the tools and strategies that have been developed to deal with
different situations. The process that an applicant uses is more
important than the actual answer they give, and these questions are
excellent for measuring an applicant’s potential.
Behavioural questions are gaining popularity, as research has suggested
that interviews containing behavioural questions are the most
successful element in determining the superior applicant.
Behavioural questions work on the premise that past behaviours will
predict future behaviour. When asking behavioural questions,
responses will give indications on how an applicant has behaved in the
past and therefore generally only measure an applicant’s current
capacity, and not their potential. It is important that an
applicant describe a specific situation, or provide a specific example
rather than just generalise. The interviewer should probe and ask
clarifying questions until a sufficient response is generated (without
labouring if the applicant can obviously not answer the question in any
more detail).
A behavioural question may sound like, “can you tell me about a time
that you had to communicate with a difficult person?” Or,
“describe a major obstacle that you have had to overcome in your work,
and how did you do that?” Follow up questions can include, “what
did you do”, “what did you say”, “how did you feel”, “what was your
role”, “what was the result”, “what would you do differently next
time”, “what did you learn.”
A database of interview questions is available from your consultant.
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